but anyway I would like to talk about dynamic spaces or maybe about the dynamic use of spaces. it seems as if we transfer from a static definition of how to use space to a more and more dynamic interpretation of spacial usage. what does this mean? when we talk about the definition of space of our parents or grand parent or even further back, the space always had its special function and a very specific way of how to use it. lets take for example the flat or the house. the rooms have these specific titles even if they do not appear to be different. there is a kitchen where we cook, there is a dining room where we eat the meal, there is a extra toilet for guest, there is a sleeping room for parents and there is a room said to be the child's room, ... this of course goes further into social definitions of the women is in the kitchen, the man is reading the newspaper in the living room... I think this goes perfectly together with form follows function because as all the spaces have their unique usage it is kind of easy to bring them in to an order, maybe hierarchy and "design" the building.
in a city we could say, at least here in europe, the medieval city was more this kind of mixture in terms of usages spatially. there was usually on the ground floor and often in the backyard the workplace. this could be a shop or a craftspersons workshop. on the first floor lived the owner and above, if there where some employees or servants. so in most of the buildings there where different usages and there was also some economical activity. after this with the industrialization and the modernists the usages became separated. there where special buildings for living, others for working and some for older people, some for younger children... shopping-streets and business districts...
maybe we can say, that at the moment things are getting mixed again. at least the "mixed use" layout is much in favor of sustainability... but there are other indicators in daily life. people start living in old factories and turn them into lofts, even before the surrounding is still used by factories. museums and other cultural activities such as discos can appear almost anywhere. in unused factories, in churches, on building sites or in living units. with the development of technology anyone [depends on definition] can work anywhere with mobile devices and so on...
in basel we do have some areas that are in some kind of transition stage and therefor are in a more dynamic stage than others. one of them is the "dreispitz" area. it is, what else, a former industry and storage site in the south west of basel. there is a huge area belonging to the bonded warehouse, and areas for container storage...
this area is in dynamic change similar to the tHgWy, all the storage and industry elements move out. on the head of it there is already a shopping centre and slowly there move in other retail facilities. not yet housing is there but there already exist plans do do so. currently there is a competition going on for a new location for the polytechnic school of art including art, media design, interior design, fashion design ... it is currently called campus of the picture this goes together with a museum that was build two years ago just next to it by HdM.
but to conclude with the topic, some more thoughts. we already discussed once the idea of creating a design that is adaptable and dynamic rather than stable and locked. it was when we discussed the novartis campus master-plan. I said it should be possible to design a "master-plan" that is able to adapt to future changes and this probably ended up in the discussion of how to foresee the future... but if we look at current european culture where peoples behavior moves into mixing functions, styles and names it should be possible to design a space for this. in architecture there is already much more of this dynamic influence. maybe some kind of bottom up approach could help...
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